More than 1,200 students from across North Texas met in Arlington Wednesday for a conference on mental health. Kids from 29 school districts, charter and private schools attended the event at Arlington ISD's Dr. Marcelo Cavazos Center for Visual and Performing Arts.
Students heard from speakers and participated in group activities to learn about how to help classmates who might be in crisis. This was the third annual Texas Peer-to-Peer Youth Conference organized by the non-profits Grace Loncar Foundation, Grant Halliburton Foundation and Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation. The organizations were launched in memory of people who died by suicide.
"When they're talking to each other, they understand what they're facing moreso than what an adult might understand," says Lindsey Encinias, the peer-to-peer program manager at Grant Halliburton.
Encinias says the event gave students a chance to compare what different schools are doing to support classmates' mental health. She says the program can also show students they are not alone in trying to ensure their own and their friends' mental health.
She says students may not want to talk to their parents, a teacher or counselor, so the opportunity to talk to a classmate who may be working through similar emotions may provide an outlet.
"When kids are talking to each other about day-to-day challenges, it's building relationships, it's learning how powerful connection can be in their own lives when they're sharing their own experience with one another," Encinias says.
Students are not trained as counselors. Instead, the conference aims to help students become a safe contact.
"It makes it so much easier," a junior at New Tech High at Coppell says. "If you're having a tough time, or you're struggling, you know you have someone you can talk to, who you can depend on."
Students also learn how to recognize potentially suicidal behavior and how to report that to an adult. The student says they learned they are not alone if they feel isolated, how to work together and build networks to support each other.
"We learned about how to connect with others, how they reach out to people. One of the main things we talked about is just taking the first small step to talk to someone to feel like they might fit in," she says.
She hopes seeing one group of students from her school talking about their mental health, others may feel empowered to do the same.
"We can also encourage other people to join in as well, sort of that crowd effect. It breaks the barrier and encourages more people to join in as well," she says.
Texas Health and Human Services says suicide is the second leading cause of death among Texans ages ten to 24.
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